All Things Are Too Small, an essay collection by Washington Post book critic Becca Rothfeld, offers an impressive critique of the contemporary tendency toward smallness and reductionism. Increasingly, Western culture prizes utility and efficiency over beauty and magnificence. “We are inundated with exhortations to smallness: short sentences stitched into short books, professional declutterers who tell us to trash our possessions, meditation practices that promise to clear the mind of thought and other detritus.” This tendency often places value on things not for their aesthetic or moral qualities, but for their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Of course, there can be beauty in smallness – the tiny flower or the intricate carving. But smallness, driven only by utility, leads to mediocrity, not beauty.

Rothfeld’s writing is honest, beautiful, and at times quite funny.